Orokin Fragment Idea: Allow Incremental Upgrades To Mod Capacity

[Unknown924]

Catalysts and reactors currently provide a significant upgrade with no middle ground between

upgraded and non-upgraded. The purpose of this idea is to let players get incremental upgrades

by playing the game without having to lucky with the alert system.

Name: Orokin Fragment

Use: Increases the mod slots for a warframe or weapon. Each fragment provides one mod slot

and up to 30 maybe installed in any item. Once the limit of 30 is reached, the fragments

become a catalyst or reactor as appropriate. Using a catalyst/reactor destroys all fragments

in the item when it is applied.

Limits: The bonus mod slots provided by fragments may not exceed the current level of the

item. Ex Level 10 item with 15 fragments gets 10 bonus slots.

How to Acquire:

Free: One fragment as a first win of the day reward. This lets people work towards better

warframes or weapons as they play without the jump a reactor/catalyst provides. By limiting

it to a first win of the day reward it gives players a reason to spend money if they don't

want to spend a month on each warframe/weapon(or rely on getting lucky).

Store: Fragment Pack with 15 fragments for 10 platinum. This keeps the price ratio of 30

points at max level for the 20 platinum a catalyst/reactor costs. This is for people that get

impatient and don't want to waste the fragments they have used by putting a full

catalyst/reactor in.

Any thoughts or comments?

EDIT - Further thoughts

Replace current reactor/catalyst alerts with fragment alerts that give 15 or less but are more common.

The idea behind this is to distribute the power of a potato over multiple alerts. By only giving fractions of a potato's power, there can be more alerts. More alerts mean than people are more likely to be able to do one. It also means that people miss less if they are not able to do an alert. This will let people feel they are getting something and making some progress.

Thoughts for frequency and value of fragment alerts

2x current, 15 fragments: This might still be a bit too rare

30x current, 1 fragment: This seems way to common.

6x current, 5 fragments: This seems like a good middle ground. Perhaps lower to 4-5x to reflect people getting fragments from first wins

Using fragments instead of potatoes should have a minimal impact on DE since they are not giving away entire reactors/catalysts.

Edited May 13, 2013 by Unknown924

[SolluxCaptorTA]

Maximum of ten on any one weapon/Frame, all of which are returned if supercharged.

 

Add this, and I'd approve. It still makes Potatoes the better choice, but is a nice boon for free players.

[sk8er100100]

Maximum of ten on any one weapon/Frame, all of which are returned if supercharged.

 

Add this, and I'd approve. It still makes Potatoes the better choice, but is a nice boon for free players.

+1

[ElementLordofMilk]

This is actually a good way to make potatoes obtainable without platinum or alerts.

Probably the best thought out I've seen.

[OoKeNnEtHoO]

Good idea.

 

Upvoted.

[Unknown924]

Maximum of ten on any one weapon/Frame, all of which are returned if supercharged.

Add this, and I'd approve. It still makes Potatoes the better choice, but is a nice boon for free players.

The first problem I see with that by having a limit and refund players will end up with a lot of unusable fragments. The idea behind the fragments being consumed was to prevent a large build up of them.

The second problem is that it would still leave free players completely reliant on luck to maximize their weapon/warframe capabilities. The idea behind F2P is that free players pay with time to get the same gameplay related benefits and power level paying players get for real money. However the current alert system with reactors/catalysts rewards luck instead of time investment.

At the same time just making reactors/catalysts easier to get with alerts would not be good for DE. Getting 30 fragments from a month of playing is the same as getting lucky one time the whole month. The difference is the fragments require players to keep playing the game for the entire month while getting a reactor/catalyst from alerts only requires being on at the right time once.

Thinking about this did give me another idea: remove catalysts/reactors from alerts.

The idea behind that is to replace the current potato alerts with fragment alerts that give around 5-15 but are more common. This would keep reactors/catalysts valuable since they let a player get maximum slots instantly, but free players would be able to eventually get their equipment to equivalent power levels.

I will update my main post with that idea and explanation.

[Gekker]

This is a great idea. I added this idea to the first post of my thread (https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/44546-how-to-miss-3-catalysts-in-6-hours-edited-feedback/?p=443058) as it is a solution for the alert reward system.